Precooling at 7?C and storing at 5?C could be best conditions for ?Pink Pride?chrysanthemum cut flower

A study was conducted to examine the effect of pre-cooling and storage temperature on the maintenance of freshness in ?Pink Pride? cut mum. Materials at a 2~3 flowers blooming stage were transported to a lab after harvested from Gumi Flower Export Complex, Korea on August 5, 2013. Cut mums were placed in chambers for 4 hours at pre-cooling temperature (room temperature, 7, or 9 ) and 48 hours at storage temperature (room temperature, 5 ) after packaging with hanji (traditional Korean paper handmade from mulberry trees) and a cardboard box(940 x 350 x 157mm).During storage, cut mums were examined for their index of flowering stage, changes of fresh weight, water uptake and vase life at a two-day interval from August 5 to August 16. Index of flowering stage was 6.17 to the extent that pre-cooling at 7 and storing at 5 into their 11th days after storage, also flowering stage was showed blooming as compared to control group (5.46), and flowering speed was delayed compared to the control. The fresh weight was increased in 11.2% when 9th days of pre-cooling at 7 and storing at 5 . The water uptake of pre-cooling at 7oC and storing at 5oC treatment was increased as 110ml compared to control (78ml). The flower senescence was delayed with pre-cooling at 7oC and storing at 5oC treatment (14.4d) compared to control (12.7d). The results indicate that storage of pre-cooling at 7 and storing 5 could be best condition on freshness maintenance in ?Pink Pride? cut mum. SourcesEFFECT OF PRE-COOLING AND STORAGE TEMPERATURE ON THE POSTHARVEST QUALITY AND MAINTENANCE OF FRESHNESS IN 'PINK PRIDE' CUT CHRYSANTHEMUMSuh, JK1, Kim, JH1, Yang, HJ1, Jo, NR1suh6971@dankook.ac.kr1Dept. of Environmental Hort., College of Bio-resources Science, DankookUniversity, Cheonan, KoreaIHC 2014, International Horticulture Congress, 17-22 August 2014, Brisbane, http://www.ihc2014.org/